What would people who have an history and culture based on living in the forests of the Amazon think of James Cameron’s film, Avatar?

Would they see themselves, their people or history echoed in it?

It’s an intriguing thought.

This short video below (4:03 minutes), produced by Siegmund Thies, follows the journey of a bus-load of Amazonians down from the heavily forested hills to bustling Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, where they watch the film in 3-D. After viewing the movie a few of the Amazonian audience are briefly interviewed.

You can’t help hoping this is a pilot or short for a full documentary.

For more on the movie, scibling Alison Campbell recently reviewed Avatar and enjoyed the presentation but queried some of the science. I have written slightly grumpily speaking for those who can see in 3-D! (I also describe viewing earlier 3-D molecular graphics.) Abhishek Tiwari looks at issues of storing and pipelining the data involved in creating the movie.

I have to admit watching the bus travel down those streets gets the travel bug going!

(Not science-related: it’s the weekend and I’m still working on that grant application!)

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